KYIV. April 24 (Interfax-Ukraine) – ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih (Dnipropetrovsk region) has confirmed its plans to invest $1.2 billion in the company’s development in 2014-2019.
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih CEO Paramjit Kahlon said at a press conference held at Interfax-Ukraine in Kyiv said that at present the company focuses on quickly-realized projects allowing it to cut the cash cost of metal products.
“The top-priority projects for us are those projects which could be realized quickly and should influence the cash cost of products, the measures that we could take to cut dependability on natural gas and expensive coke,” he said.
He said that plans on large investment projects have been retained.
“As for investment projects, we plan to build at least three continuous steel slab casting plants,” he said.
Kahlon said that the company pays special attention to reducing natural gas consumption, and that a PCI (pulverized coal injection) plant is currently being built.
“As for PCI – in December 2015 we plan to finish the building of the first PCI plant at the largest blast furnace nine. In general, after the launch of the whole PCI complex natural gas consumption will fall by 60-65% – from the current daily volume of 2 million cubic meters to 500,000 cubic meters in the future. This will allow for increasing competitiveness,” Kahlon said.
He said that there is a lack of skilled contractors and specialists in Ukraine, which could affect the terms of commissioning of the plants.
Kahlon said that the company is permanently investing in the upgrade of production facilities and it is a socially responsible company.
“We took responsibility of providing stability of work of our employees. We would like it [to be so] that they do not have the prospect of losing [their] jobs. We’re a responsible business which continues investing in Ukraine,” he said.
